By The Book

We take a trip to Anfield with sports pundit Bob Holmes, who joins us to talk about his new book, “Shanks, Yanks & Jurgen”. True to its title, the book traces the history of Liverpool FC from its early days under the late Bill Shankley to the current revival with Jurgen Klopp - and Bob even shares his favourite quotes and anecdotes of Shanks. We wrap things up with a discussion on our favourite sports books.

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We take a trip to Anfield with sports pundit Bob Holmes, who joins us to talk about his new book, “Shanks, Yanks & Jurgen”. True to its title, the book traces the history of Liverpool FC from its early days under the late Bill Shankley to the current revival with Jurgen Klopp - and Bob even shares his favourite quotes and anecdotes of Shanks. We wrap things up with a discussion on our favourite sports books.

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Between adulting, life admin, work and Netflix - where does one find time to read? That's the question we try to answer in this week's episode, examining our own reading habits, how they've changed over the years and crucially, how we maintain a healthy relationship with our books and our time.

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For a certain group of readers around the world, July 31 is an important date: the birthday of The Boy Who Lived. For the uninitiated, that’s Harry Potter, and yes, we are taking this opportunity to revisit and reminisce over our love for J.K. Rowling’s global phenomenon of a book series. Whether you loved it, hated it, or have yet to read it, join us as we discuss what made the series so significant, both to the literary world and to us personally. We wrap things up with a look at the recently revealed Man Booker longlist for 2019.

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Tash Aw's latest novel, We the Survivors, examines the story of a Malaysian man who commits a violent, racist crime, and asks: what were the circumstances that led him there? We speak to Tash himself about what inspired the book, why it has its specific tone and language, and all the different Malaysias we experience, depending on our privilege and education. And then we follow that up with a brief chat about our favourite outsider characters, and how they make everything more interesting.

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Tash Aw's latest novel, We the Survivors, examines the story of a Malaysian man who commits a violent, racist crime, and asks: what were the circumstances that led him there? We speak to Tash himself about what inspired the book, why it has its specific tone and language, and all the different Malaysias we experience, depending on our privilege and education. And then we follow that up with a brief chat about outsider characters, and literary news.

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In honour of Bastille Day on July 14, we get a crash course on French literature from Roland Husson of the Embassy of France in Malaysia. We discuss how reading and literature in France have evolved over the history, what contemporary French literature is, and some of the literary connections between France and Malaysia. We wrap things up by talking about our experiences with translated literary works.

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This month we turn our attention to Normal People, the much-feted, much-discussed second novel by Sally Rooney, which explores intense love, social isolation, and ideas of masculinity and fragility. BFM's Dhanya Nair joins us for this journey. And then after that, we catch up on some correspondence about American novels and novelists.

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The 4th of July is the United States of America’s Independence Day, and we take the opportunity to discuss American literature - and particularly, the idea of the “great American novel” and why it is so particular to the US. We also discuss some of our favourite American writers, including John Steinbeck, Harper Lee, and - quite unanimously - Stephen King! We wrap things up with a nod to World UFO Day, and the books that revel in telling stories of unidentified flying objects.

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This week we venture into the tricky waters of canon - how do we feel when authors revisit their works and worlds, and make changes? Are we able to accept that some of our favourite characters might adapt and have hidden histories? We discuss all this and more, invoking Harry Potter and queerness, and posthumous changes to Atticus Finch.

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